Inkwoven
by Calyn
Summary: Fenoglio writes once again, and all three join their voices to his words. Mini sequel to Inkdeath, tying up a few loose ends. (FIF #5)


**Because I was extremely disappointed with Inkdeath's ending. With thanks to JW for beta work.  
**

 **Ink trilogy belongs to Cornelia Funke.**

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Once upon a time, there was a land far away, a land that existed only in the space between words woven by its author. There was a good man called Mortimer, whose tongue spun such magic as to slip right between those words, and so grant commerce between that land and ours. He had a daughter, and a wife, and an aunt, and oh! the adventures they had in that inkmade world.

But there was another man, a man gifted with the ability both to speak the words of silvery magic and to weave them, and he was not good as the other man was, but full of greed and pride. He called himself Orpheus, for he believed he was as skilled a magician as the ancient Greek had been a musician. And thinking of nothing but himself, he joined with the wicked Adderhead to destroy the Bluejay Mo.

The battle between the two forces was long and bitter, and many on both sides were lost ere the end, but finally good triumphed. The Adderhead was slain and the ink world freed of him forever, the Bluejay doffed his cap of feathers and settled down to nest, but Orpheus fled to the north.

For a time they forgot him, until Mo's young son Reuel began to yearn for the world of his parents, and to make inquiry on how it might be reached. He found the old man who had written the world into existence, the man called Inkweaver, and begged him to write words that might allow him to journey to that world.

"Alas," said Inkweaver. "For though I am old and my mind is sore afflicted, I fain would do this for you. Yet words are lifeless without a reader, and powerless without one whose tongue can weave the magic. There are only four I can name. Three would be much loath to lose you, and the last cannot be trusted, if indeed he be yet alive."

"But if he cannot be trusted," said Reuel to the wordsmith, "why is it that he may still be alive? If he cannot be trusted, why was he allowed to keep his magic? For could he not pen himself an army and speak it into existence? Could he not pursue revenge against us?"

Inkweaver made as if to answer, then stopped, and looked thoughtful. "Your point is sound. Take a message to your sister and father and uncle, and tell them I wish to speak with them."

"And you will then give me words to let me visit the other world?" Reuel insisted.

Inkweaver smiled. "I cannot guarantee anything, but I promise that I shall try my utmost. Now go!"

And so they met, the inkweaver and the magicspinners, and spoke for two days, and came to a decision.

The man called both Fenoglio and Inkweaver took his quill for warp and parchment for weft and wove a tapestry of words out of inky thread, an inkweaving to strip Orpheus of his power. And the magicspinners called Mortimer and Margarethe and Darius together read that inkwoven spell, a trebled force of silvery magic to bind and hold as none had before.

 _The man from Earth,_ for it was wise to be precise.

 _Who called himself Orpheus,_ for they did not know his true name, nor even if he still used the musician's as his own.

 _Under any and all names he has been known as or shall be known as in future,_ for the bookbinder Mortimer had once thrown off the shackles of words written only about the Bluejay.

 _Henceforth has no power to compose words that may be read to life,_ for much evil would never have come to pass if he had been a reader only.

 _Nor to speak into life words which have been so written,_ for it was through this that he had first proved himself a danger and entered the land between the words.

 _The magic obeys him no more, and never will again. He is as any other man, and will remain thus forever._

Together they read, and together wove the magic, and far away a man screamed in unheard anger.

But Reuel was persistent, and demanded of Inkweaver his promised words.

"This will not fully come to pass until you are older," the old man told Reuel, as he handed the parchment to the boy, "for you are yet a child, and too young to make a journey that may be on your own. Give it to your father. He will know what to do."

So Mortimer read the first part of the inkweaving, and then went down into a valley that had never cleft the ground before, behind a waterfall that had never roared before, and by the light of the full moon he gathered plants that had never grown before. Called into existence by the silver magic of pen and word, they glowed silver themselves, and with the proper ceremonies had the power to go between the worlds.

The Fire-Dancer's daughter split and wove and plaited them into a gleaming rope, and under the darkness of a new moon Margarethe read over it the second part of the inkweaving. They carefully coiled and stored the shimmering cord, and spoke little of it for several years, until Reuel grew into a fine strapping lad.

The day Reuel turned fifteen, they brought forth the rope once more. At midnight Darius read the third part of the inkweaving, and all those with a grip on the rope vanished. Three days they had on Earth, ere the rope would return with or without them, and either way a year of waiting before it could make the journey again.

None stayed, that time.

But what happened the next times, and what occurred when Orpheus made his way south with revenge aflame in his heart, and how those events crossed and connected...

...that is a different tale.

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 **Seriously, though—Orpheus ran off into hiding with all his powers intact and no one thought this might be a** _ **problem**_ **? I'd have put Meggie and Farid back together too, if there'd been a good way to work it in. I hate out-of-nowhere pairings, especially when they have no actual development and pointlessly break up an already-established relationship.**

 **Word of Author is not canon, therefore the kid's name is not Dante (and the readers are not "silvertongues"), therefore I get to pick it. And I absolutely think "Meggie" is a nickname, hence Margarethe. I considered Megara, but after all, the author's German and so's the book.**

 **"What happened the next times" will not be written, but it involves, in part, Reuel outwitting his family and staying behind on Earth for a year (at least) when he's eighteen or so.**

 **P.S. Yes, I did refer to Darius as Reuel's uncle. I find that to be an eminently plausible** **development.**


End file.
